After years of frustration and disappointment, following many starts and stops, perhaps the most talked about boxing match in history is finally a reality.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced Friday that he's agreed to fight Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight bout May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. It's a bout the public has been calling for since late 2009 and pits the two finest boxers of their generation in a historic event.

"I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years," said Pacquiao, who signed the contract for the bout Thursday. "They have waited long enough and they deserve it. It is an honor to be part of this historic event. I dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos around the world."

The bout is expected to set numerous records, including purse size, live paid gate and pay-per-view sales. The cost of the pay-per-view has yet to be determined and won't be until there are deals with the distributors.

Formal details on the agreement have yet to be announced, but it's expected that Mayweather will have a 60-40 split advantage on revenues, with Mayweather making at least $120 million and Pacquiao $80 million.

"Floyd should enjoy being the A-side while he can," Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, said. "Because on May 2, Manny is going to put him on his backside."

The two nearly came to terms around the Christmas holidays in 2009, a month after Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand. It fell apart, though, when Pacquiao and promoter Bob Arum balked at Mayweather's demand for drug testing run by the United States Anti-Doping Agency during training camp.

There were numerous attempts over the last five years to reignite the talks. In 2011, then-HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg tried to act as a mediator between Mayweather adviser Al Haymon and Arum, but that didn't come to fruition.

In 2012, Mayweather, who was in Las Vegas, called Pacquiao, who was at his home in the Philippines, and offered him a guaranteed $40 million but with no pay-per-view upside. Pacquiao declined that offer.

Mayweather jumped from HBO, which had him under an exclusive television contract for much of his career, to Showtime in 2013, which seemed to be the death knell for the fight.

Mayweather has fought four of the six fights on his record-breaking Showtime contract and didn't have an opponent out there who would have made the kind of show that would resonate with the public the way a Pacquiao fight would.

Pacquiao remains under an exclusive television deal with HBO, so that further complicated the attempts to match the fighters. Only once previously, in 2002 when Lennox Lewis (HBO) and Mike Tyson (Showtime) fought, have the two premium cable giants gotten together to do a pay-per-view.

As much as I would like to see Manny put Floyd to sleep I think Floyd wins this by decision.

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I see it probably like that too. Floyd's such a good defensive fighter and he's going to be extra careful knowing that Manny has enough power to take him out with a single punch. I see it being a pretty hollow victory that will invariably lead to the rematch.

About a year ago I went to a Floggy Molly concert with a girl I had the biggest crush on in high school. By this point she was kinda fat, going through a divorce, and was a cocktail waitress at the nasty ass strip club.

After the show I still went back to her house and fucked her, and made her cum harder than she even thought was possible. Just to say I did. Because even though she was no longer my dream girl, she still used to be my dream girl.

What I'm saying is Pam Anderson has been gross for years, but I'd fuck her ten years from now just to say I did it.

About a year ago I went to a Floggy Molly concert with a girl I had the biggest crush on in high school. By this point she was kinda fat, going through a divorce, and was a cocktail waitress at the nasty ass strip club.

After the show I still went back to her house and fucked her, and made her cum harder than she even thought was possible. Just to say I did. Because even though she was no longer my dream girl, she still used to be my dream girl.

What I'm saying is Pam Anderson has been gross for years, but I'd fuck her ten years from now just to say I did it.